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Home › Waters › Kentucky › Elkhorn Creek
Creek · Bluegrass · Kentucky

Elkhorn Creek Fishing Guides

The Bluegrass smallmouth float, running through horse country from the forks near Georgetown down a limestone gorge to the Kentucky River at Frankfort.

A shallow rocky river running clear through eastern woodland
Gauge location. Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Guides on the Elkhorn Creek

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About the Elkhorn Creek

Elkhorn Creek is the best smallmouth stream in central Kentucky and one of the most pleasant half-day floats anywhere in the state. The North and South forks drain the horse farms around Lexington and Georgetown and join near Great Crossing, and from there the main stem cuts a limestone gorge northwest to the Kentucky River at Frankfort. It is small enough to feel intimate and big enough to float in a canoe or kayak nearly year-round.

Smallmouth are the point. The creek runs riffle to pool over limestone ledges, and the fish sit exactly where you would expect them, on the seams and in the shade of the rock. Rock bass fill in the pockets, there are largemouth in the slower pools and musky in the lower reaches near the Kentucky River. Wade fishing is excellent at low water and float fishing is better when it comes up a little, and a fly rod with poppers and Clousers covers most of the year.

The gauge near Frankfort reads the main stem below the forks. Roughly 80 to 400 cfs is comfortable float and wade water; low summer readings under fifty mean walking the boat through the riffles, while a number in the thousands after a Bluegrass thunderstorm means muddy, pushy water that clears in a couple of days. This is a flashy limestone creek, so check it the morning of the trip.

Frankfort and Georgetown bracket the run, with Lexington twenty minutes away. Access is limited to a handful of public points and a couple of liveries, so most trips run one of the standard segments, and respecting the private land between them is what keeps those accesses open.

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Version 1.0, dated 6 September 2026. Applies to every photograph submitted to GuidedFloats through the contact form, a species page, or the community board.

1. What you give us

By ticking the box on the form you grant Guided Floats, LLC (“GuidedFloats”, “we”) a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free license to store, copy, resize, crop and display your photograph on guidedfloats.com, in GuidedFloats’ own social media accounts and mobile apps, and in material that promotes the site itself, in connection with the fish, water or community feature you sent it in for. The license lasts until you withdraw it (section 4).

You keep the copyright. The license is not exclusive, so you can use the photo anywhere else and license it to anyone else. We will not sell your photo, license it on to anyone else on its own, or use it in paid advertising for a third party.

2. What you confirm

You confirm that you took the photograph yourself (or otherwise own the rights to it), that you have the right to grant this license, and that publishing the photo does not infringe anyone else’s copyright, privacy or other rights.

If any person is recognisable in the photo, you confirm that they have agreed to its being published here, and that a parent or guardian has agreed on behalf of anyone under 18. Please do not send photographs of other people’s catches, screenshots, or pictures copied from other websites or social media.

3. Credit

We print the credit name you give us beside the photo wherever it appears on the site, and record it as the photo’s creator in the page’s structured data. If you leave the credit blank we use the name you gave us on the form. Write “Anonymous” if you prefer no name at all. Your email address, phone number and the exact spot the photo was taken are never published.

4. Withdrawing the license

You can withdraw the license at any time by emailing hello@guidedfloats.com, or by using the contact form, and telling us which photo you mean. We will remove the photo from guidedfloats.com within 7 days of receiving your message and stop using it in anything new. Copies that are already outside our control — search-engine caches, social posts that have already gone out, printed material already produced — may take longer to disappear or may not be recallable, and we are not responsible for those.

5. What we may do

We choose which photos to publish and may decline any submission without giving a reason. We may crop, resize, sharpen or colour-correct a photo for display, and we may remove a photo at any time. We will not alter a photo in a way that misrepresents the fish, the water or you.

6. Your details

We keep your name, email address, the credit name, the water and date you gave us, and the network address the submission came from, with the submission record, as our evidence of this license. We hold that record for as long as the photo is published and for the retention period described in our privacy policy. Location data that your camera or phone embedded in the file is removed before the photo is published.

7. Versions

The version of this license you accepted is stored with your submission and printed with the photo. A later version does not apply to a photo you have already sent unless you agree to it.

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Posting to Elkhorn Creek.

JPG, PNG or WebP, up to 12 MB. We resize it and strip the location data out of the file.

The name shown under the photo. Leave blank to stay anonymous.

Reader photo license v1.0 — the short version:

  • You grant Guided Floats, LLC a non-exclusive, royalty-free license to publish, resize and crop your photo on guidedfloats.com and in GuidedFloats’ own social posts and apps. You keep the copyright and can use the photo anywhere else.
  • You confirm that you took the photo yourself, that publishing it does not infringe anyone else’s rights, and that anyone recognisable in it (or a parent or guardian, if they are under 18) is happy for it to appear here.
  • Credit is printed beside the photo wherever it appears on the site, using the credit name you give us. Leave it blank and we use your name; write “Anonymous” for no name. Your email address is never published.
  • Withdrawing is one email to hello@guidedfloats.com naming the photo. It comes off the site within 7 days.
Read the full license

Version 1.0, dated 6 September 2026. Applies to every photograph submitted to GuidedFloats through the contact form, a species page, or the community board.

1. What you give us

By ticking the box on the form you grant Guided Floats, LLC (“GuidedFloats”, “we”) a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free license to store, copy, resize, crop and display your photograph on guidedfloats.com, in GuidedFloats’ own social media accounts and mobile apps, and in material that promotes the site itself, in connection with the fish, water or community feature you sent it in for. The license lasts until you withdraw it (section 4).

You keep the copyright. The license is not exclusive, so you can use the photo anywhere else and license it to anyone else. We will not sell your photo, license it on to anyone else on its own, or use it in paid advertising for a third party.

2. What you confirm

You confirm that you took the photograph yourself (or otherwise own the rights to it), that you have the right to grant this license, and that publishing the photo does not infringe anyone else’s copyright, privacy or other rights.

If any person is recognisable in the photo, you confirm that they have agreed to its being published here, and that a parent or guardian has agreed on behalf of anyone under 18. Please do not send photographs of other people’s catches, screenshots, or pictures copied from other websites or social media.

3. Credit

We print the credit name you give us beside the photo wherever it appears on the site, and record it as the photo’s creator in the page’s structured data. If you leave the credit blank we use the name you gave us on the form. Write “Anonymous” if you prefer no name at all. Your email address, phone number and the exact spot the photo was taken are never published.

4. Withdrawing the license

You can withdraw the license at any time by emailing hello@guidedfloats.com, or by using the contact form, and telling us which photo you mean. We will remove the photo from guidedfloats.com within 7 days of receiving your message and stop using it in anything new. Copies that are already outside our control — search-engine caches, social posts that have already gone out, printed material already produced — may take longer to disappear or may not be recallable, and we are not responsible for those.

5. What we may do

We choose which photos to publish and may decline any submission without giving a reason. We may crop, resize, sharpen or colour-correct a photo for display, and we may remove a photo at any time. We will not alter a photo in a way that misrepresents the fish, the water or you.

6. Your details

We keep your name, email address, the credit name, the water and date you gave us, and the network address the submission came from, with the submission record, as our evidence of this license. We hold that record for as long as the photo is published and for the retention period described in our privacy policy. Location data that your camera or phone embedded in the file is removed before the photo is published.

7. Versions

The version of this license you accepted is stored with your submission and printed with the photo. A later version does not apply to a photo you have already sent unless you agree to it.

Flow alert

Tell me when the Elkhorn Creek cfs

Now: 125 cfs, read 4:15 am CDT, Mon Oct 19, 2026 (USGS 03289500, ELKHORN CREEK NEAR FRANKFORT, KY).

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Access

Great Crossing and the forks near Georgetown: the top of the main stem.
Peaks Mill: the standard mid-creek access point.
Knights Bridge and Jones Road: bridge accesses on the middle creek.
Elkhorn Campground: private launch and shuttle service.
Frankfort and the Kentucky River confluence: lower access near the gauge.
Public access is limited and most banks are private; launch and take out at established points.

Seasons

March through May: high, cool water and prespawn smallmouth in the deeper pools.
June through August: the core season, topwater mornings, wade fishing at low flows.
September and October: the best smallmouth weeks of the year, clear water and light traffic.
November through February: cold and often high; occasional musky trips on the lower creek.

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Questions

What is the current flow on the Elkhorn Creek?

As of Oct 19, 4:15 am, the USGS gauge ELKHORN CREEK NEAR FRANKFORT, KY reads 125 cfs, the 66th percentile for this date, with water temperature 56.7 F. Conditions update every 15 minutes.

What species can you catch on the Elkhorn Creek?

Anglers target Bluegill, Largemouth Bass, Longear Sunfish, Muskellunge, Rock Bass, Smallmouth Bass on the Elkhorn Creek in Kentucky.

Where can you access the Elkhorn Creek?

Great Crossing and the forks near Georgetown: the top of the main stem. Peaks Mill: the standard mid-creek access point. Knights Bridge and Jones Road: bridge accesses on the middle creek. Elkhorn Campground: private launch and shuttle service. Frankfort and the Kentucky River confluence: lower access near the gauge. Public access is limited and most banks are private; launch and take out at established points.

When is the best time to fish the Elkhorn Creek?

March through May: high, cool water and prespawn smallmouth in the deeper pools. June through August: the core season, topwater mornings, wade fishing at low flows. September and October: the best smallmouth weeks of the year, clear water and light traffic. November through February: cold and often high; occasional musky trips on the lower creek.

Where are the fishing regulations for the Elkhorn Creek?

Regulations change by season and section. Read the current rules on the Kentucky agency site: https://fw.ky.gov/FishBoatGuide/Pages/default.aspx